
Congratulations are due to the DTA
Public Education Advocacy Committee which did a great job during the
Provincial Election campaign of raising education as a vote defining
issue. As Chair of this committee, Pat Truelove organized several
activities that were designed to get our education message out to Delta
voters. A number of newspaper advertisements that featured statistics
about Delta classrooms were placed in the local newspapers. The PEAC
committee, on behalf of the DTA, in partnership with the Delta District
Parents’ Advisory Council and CUPE local 1091, also organized two
successful all candidates meetings in each of the two Delta ridings.
All of the candidates running in Delta attended both all candidates’
meetings which was not the case elsewhere. A questionnaire was sent to
each of the candidates for completion and distribution to teachers
living in Delta. Finally, some hardy teachers from Holly Elementary and
Brooke Elementary Schools braved pouring rain and hail to join Pat
Truelove on Nordel Way and me on the overpass at Highways 10 and 17 on
election day to wave Burma shave signs to oncoming traffic. The message
was simple: VOTE TODAY THINK EDUCATION. My thanks to each teacher who
helped promote education as a vote determining issue in their own way.
For the first time since I started
regularly attending school board meetings almost eleven years ago, the
Delta Board of Education on May 5, 2009 publicly stated that it did not
receive enough money from the provincial government to fund Delta
schools. For years the silence has been deafening as school trustees,
through the BC School Trustees Association, were compliant in making
cuts to district programs while the government washed its hands of the
dirty work trustees were forced to do.
Delta Teachers' Association
210 - 5000 Bridge Street, Delta, BC V4K 2K4
604 946 0391
email - deltateachers@telus.net
|